With over 38 years of experience in water resources, Paul Schweiger, Vice President and Manager of Dams and Hydraulics at Gannett Fleming, admits he practically fell into the dam industry by mistake.
At 17 years of age, Schweiger didn’t realise his father had enrolled him into an engineering programme at the University of New Brunswick in Canada. After a couple of weeks he finally realised he wasn’t doing a business degree but an engineering one. Adding that he probably wasn’t very well informed at the time, Schweiger says he “became very serious, real quick”.
It was through his interest in water resources engineering and a focus on hydraulics, modelling and dam break analysis, that he found his way into the dam safety field. Since then his experience of co-authoring multiple technical publications has helped shape the modern dam safety industry in the US. He also regularly conducts training through webinars and technical seminars on a variety of dam engineering subjects.
Sharing knowledge and expertise
Schweiger is keen to highlight the importance of sharing knowledge and expertise in the workplace. Perhaps this stems back to his experience at one of the first places he worked. It had a closed-door environment and if you needed help or support you were on your own.
Very few people would share what they knew with you, he says. It was hard to get advice. A lot of staff feared they were indispensable if they taught you what they knew as the firm was letting go of a lot of people each year.
However, when he started working at Gannet Fleming, it was the total opposite and there was an open door. It was just a matter of knocking and asking for help and the answer was always yes, he says. It was the company culture and there was a sense that everyone had everyone else’s back.
Not only was this very rewarding, Schweiger says, it gave him the confidence to try more challenging things as he always knew more experienced people were willing to mentor him and give advice. It was a workplace where you wanted to work.
It’s so beneficial, he agrees, to find someone in your career who you can bounce ideas off and feel comfortable talking to. The best way to learn how to become a dam engineer, he says, is it to learn from those who’ve invested their career in it. They can teach you things and explain why they’re good practice or not.
Talking about how he deals with his younger, less experienced staff, Schweiger admits that as a consultant time is money, so you have to be efficient with the resources you have. If bringing in newer staff on a project he matches less experienced ones with more experienced engineers, because although you need to go from A to B as efficiently as possible, you also want staff to learn along the way. Schweiger is keen to encourage brainstorming on solutions and keeps quiet to let younger staff speak up, but is always there to explain anything that won’t work.
Offering advice to anyone starting off in this field as a young engineer in their first job or as a recent graduate, Schweiger urges them to invest in their career. Do stuff outside of work hours, he says. Don’t stop learning and do those extra activities while you can before having a family, when time is harder to find. Differentiate yourself and make some advances when you can, he adds.
Looking back, Schweiger says being involved with organisations outside of work including FEMA and ASDSO has really helped his career. Such experience has been indispensable. Without being involved in these, ASDSO in particular, he doesn’t believe he could have the career he has now.
The value of industry events
In this ASDSO podcast, which shares the stories of leaders and innovators in the dam safety community, Schweiger spoke about the value of attending industry conferences where you can learn about new technology, meet clients and regulators etc. It requires “sweat equity”, he admits. If you’re going to do a paper or presentation very few companies will say take two weeks off and pay you to do it, but the reward if you do a good paper and put effort in, is that you can go to the conference and present it.
Speaking about presenting papers, Schweiger admits he still has a fear of public speaking but it’s now manageable. By volunteering to teach at Sunday School classes he became more comfortable about speaking in front of a group of people. Just like athletes have to train and keep in shape, you have to find a way to fine tune your communication skills and keep them sharp, is his advice.
Describing ASDSO conferences as being a great place to learn, he says they can almost be a life changing experience. I was afraid when younger that people would find out how little I knew, Schweiger admits, but at ASDSO everybody was a friend. Even the most senior people would be interested in what I had to say and diplomatically set the record straight if needed. I think that culture in ASDSO has always been there. It’s never changed and has probably got better for young professionals, he says.
Advice
So what advice give Schweiger give his younger self? Don’t be afraid or overly intimidated, was his reply. At ASDSO conferences you make lot of contacts and start to form a network of colleagues and friends you’ll probably interact with for the rest of your life. It’s interesting how you can make these life-long connections, he says, admitting he has hundreds of names like that.
He also believes the best way to become recognised as a subject matter expert is by sharing what you know by writing technical papers, doing presentations at conferences, and working on committees. When the time comes, clients or engineers or regulators that need a subject matter expert will then know where to go.
Looking back over his career, Schweiger says we all want our work to be meaningful and make a difference. The most rewarding thing about his career is remembering all the people and projects where he made a positive difference. Indeed, there’s nothing more satisfying if mentoring an engineer to see them grow, succeed and make a difference, he adds. It’s also about being able to open doors to them as others opened doors for him. And if a client puts their trust in you to solve a problem, and you do it and exceed expectations, it makes you feel very useful and it’s very rewarding.
It’s things like this, Schweiger concludes, that make his job very worthwhile.
Listen to the podcast here.
